Mattie is resting up for tonight

We got James' xmas gift on his car

Sherman was helping... kinda

Weird looking trunk

James is scalping the tree

Bye-bye tree

Muldoone is watching it go

New Year's Eve

James and I decided to ring in the new year in our favorite way... at home in our pajamas with the dogs. It was really nice and sunny today. We had an eventful day. We took down the tree and put all the stuff away. Amazingly it was still soft and really green. James demolished the poor thing so now it is nothing but a fat stick. I'm kind of sad to see it go. I will like to get the living room back however.

I'm sad to see my week off come to an end. I sure have had fun... visiting with Mom, Dad, Bucky, and Holly - and of course catching up on my sleep. Wait. Is that even possible?

Holly and Bucky

James is not so sure about this

Motley Crew

It looks like a police line up to me.

Who's idea was this anyway? Haha

James and Holly do the Wonder Woman twirl

A boy and his chex mix

We all agreed... mom's is better!

Bucky getting ready to play

Cards and Cocktails

Friday Bucky and Holly came up to Portland to tromp around town. We went downtown and ran around most of the afternoon then came back to meet James for dinner. We came back after dinner and settled in for an evening of euchre. We had lots of fun. James and Holly hit it off, and we just kept getting sillier and sillier as the night wore on.

Martini Boobs

Holly liked her cookbook

Dad playing with his new toy

Wrapping Overkill

I love wrapping paper! I wrapped Bucky's mongo beef stick in the remains of mom's wrapping paper... which was alot.

Poop Gauge

Holly

Mom's Xmas Tree

Xmas... Part II

Bucky and Holly got into town this afternoon. They were road weary from all their driving. We hung out all afternoon at mom and dad's, and we had a really nice time visiting. James came down for a more traditional christmas dinner after he got off work. I managed to rewrap all of Bucky's presents that we had opened on xmas eve, and after dinner we had a second present opening with Bucky and Holly which was really fun.

James does his best Wonder Woman twirl

Me and Arial

Xmas dinner... a mexican feast

Mom making xmas dinner

Muldoone and Mattie's sqeaky hotdog

Mattie and James

Unwrapping presents is hard work.

Tif, Me, & James

The Aftermath

Wrapping Paper Boobees

Like a kid at christmas

Dad got a real surprise this year... a gold panning kit.

James opening a dud

My matching TN sweatshirt

Tif opening a present

Mom opening a dud

Let the festivities begin

James was the designated present-passer-outer. Remember... it was easy this year. There weren't any tags so it was a free for all.

Not to diminish how great of a job he did!

Xmas Eve Dinner Attendees

James' reminder to not turn on the oven...

We had alot of food-stuffs on the counter that needed protecting from the dogs while we went out for lunch, so we put the overflow in the oven. As a reminder to not turn on the oven until we took the stuff out, James put a feminine product over the oven controls. Apparently his explanation was that he couldn't find a post-it note.

Pull-Apart Bread

I'm dreaming of a white trash Christmas...

We have had some construction going on in our master bathroom - which is a long story that maybe I'll tell someday. So anyway... we have a potty on our front porch.

PS: the wetness is from the rain, not the potty.

James' Head Injury

James bumped his head on the corner of the kitchen cabinet... hard. So he put some frozen blueberries on it.

Merry Xmas & Happy Holidays!

Merry Xmas everyone! I hope all of you are having fun, eating too much, and hugging someone you love. I know I am.

We always open gifts on xmas eve, so we got together last night and had dinner. I'm glad Tiffanie could join us. We had fun. This was the first time James and I had ever hosted xmas at our house. We had a tree (as you guys have all seen in many photos) and I made dinner. I made asparagus ravioli-lasagna. Tiffanie made a yummy punkin' pie, chocolate covered cherries, and sparkling cider. Mom made pull apart bread, lots of goodees and her famous chex-mix.

This year when James and I wrapped the presents we did not put tags on them. It started out that we forgot to buy tags, and then we were too lazy to go and get any. We decided that we wouldn't tag any of them. The number of presents never comes out evenly. We open gifts round robin style, and there is always someone still unwrapping presents after everyone else has run out. So we decided we would just pass out the presents. When you opened one you wouldn't know what it was or who it was for. It was like everyone could be surprised. When we started wrapping gifts we realized that there weren't enough to look nice under the tree, so James and I wrapped some empty boxes. Well as time went on we started getting more and more real gifts coming in, so we ended up with alot of gifts under the tree. It was fun to see if the gift was real or not. I think they were a little skeptical at first, but by the end of the evening everyone had gotten into it.

We even unwrapped Bucky's gifts, so I'll have to rewrap them before Bucky and Holly come in Tuesday night. I'm really glad they are coming up.

I have plenty of more details, but I'm going down to Mom and Dad's soon for lunch, so I need to get ready. I have tons of pictures to post, but you guys will have to wait.

Abdula

Not everyone is a fan of my photographic genius.

Tiffanie in her elf hat

Isn't she cute!

Tiffanie's side of the cube

Quite sparse

My side of the cube

Complete with badly placed xmas lights.

Mongo Cube

They rearranged us all, and Tiffanie and I scored a big open cube. Some people got their cube cut in half, but we scored this nice space.

The end of the week...

... And the beginning of an even longer vacation. 10 days. Yes, but it is not long enough. I'm out until the 2nd of January. This week of course creeeeeped by. The office was pretty sparse today, and not many people wanted to work... including Tiffanie and I. We squeezed in a couple of conference calls however. Aren't we good little workers?

What am I going to do while I'm on vacation, you may ask. Well... my landlord ordered 3 gallons of paint for me. So I will try to paint the rest of the house. I also plan on sleeping and spending quality time with the dogs while sleeping. I want to do some heavy shopping with mom too.

The way they look... for now

This is how they are arranged today. Tomorrow I will probably do it all over again.

Obsessive compulsive present sorting

The dogs were more than happy to help.

I have to pull them out and sort them by wrapping paper. Note... that each paper pattern has an equal amount of presents wrapped in it.

I really should tell you guys all this.

"Christmas is coming, I think I'm getting fat(ter)"

"Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat" is still one of my favorite xmas songs. How can you go wrong with the Muppets?

Ahhh... as the big day gets closer, I am kinda getting excited. I remember as a kid getting excited as soon as the tree went up. Now I guess the "magic" is gone. You know... since santa deserted me. My favorite xmas activity still has not lost its joy. I love arranging the presents under the tree. Everytime we get a new one I have to pull them all out from under the tree and rearrange them. If we haven't gotten a new present in a few days I pull them all out anyway. Is that sick or what? Some may even call it a bit obsessive compulsive.

I sure have been procrastinating about deciding on the menu for xmas eve dinner (and shopping for it). We are having xmas eve dinner and opening gifts over at our place. Mom is hosting xmas dinner at her house. She is fixing a mexican feast. Since santa left, my family has opened gifts on xmas eve. That way we are full, awake, and hopefully not in our pajamas.

Snow

This is the most snow I have seen all year. How nice.